


Sugar Coma

by SharpestRose



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Set after end of Kuroshitsuji ii
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 20:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2163516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alois Trancy is wearing a fitted pink t-shirt reading "Daddy's little darling" in sparkly letters, a pair of black denim shorts that look like they probably break several public decency laws, and knee-high converse sneakers with two-inch-thick soles. </p>
<p>He looks absolutely appalling. </p>
<p>In other words, he looks exactly like Alois Trancy has always looked, just updated for the modern world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar Coma

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sparklechii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklechii/gifts).



Odette is a fussy eater. Her current demand is that food be colourless whenever possible -- rice, noodles, potato dishes. She likes sweet things, too, so Ciel often buys meringues and sponge cakes to go with her cream and vanilla ice cream as desserts. 

Not  _too_  often, though; the terms of his contract with Jacques were that Ciel would deliver the boy's little sister safely and happily to adulthood. Diabetic comas probably wouldn't fall within that purview. 

She's going through another growth spurt (at barely nine years old she's already almost as tall as he is, even when he's wearing shoes with a heel. She thinks it's funny how moody this makes him) and so it's time to buy new clothes. Odette consistently refuses Ciel's offers to bring in private tailors for her -- "I want to dress like a  _normal person,_ Ciel _" --_ and insists on dragging him along on these endeavors.

"My brother gave you to me so I wouldn't be lonely. That includes when I'm trying to find cute new leggings."

Ciel clicks his tongue, annoyed. "For the last time, I'm not your _au pair_. The terms of the contract merely covered that I would take over your brother's role as guardian following his death, and see to it that the remainder of your youth was as devoid of misery as possible."

"Well, it makes me happy when you come shopping, so it counts as avoiding misery. So there."

"Just try those horrible pants on so we can get out of here."

Odette rolls her eyes. "I can't believe I'm getting my fashion taste insulted by a guy who thinks visible sock garters are a cool thing."

She gathers her bundle of chosen garments and heads for the changing room. 

Ciel's been in Odette's employ for two years now, since making and fulfilling the contract with her older brother. Assuming that her adulthood will formally occur when she turns either eighteen or twenty-one, he has at least another nine years left to go. 

Truth be told, he doesn't actually mind it. Odette is an easygoing, if occasionally capricious, child, and accepted the situation without complaint when her brother explained it to her. Ciel could have done a lot worse. She could have been like he was, when he was still human.

Remembering the petty torments he subjected Sebastian to at every opportunity, Ciel smiles to himself. He hasn't seen Sebastian for a few decades now, but knows that his eternally contracted butler would be at his side in less than a moment if Ciel had reason to summon him. 

For now, Ciel has no need of Sebastian's help. Food and clothing are simple purchases in the modern world, even for a child who is as particular as Odette is about such things. 

"Ahahaha! You look like shit."

Ciel's head jerks in the direction of the insult, his eyes widening in genuine shock at the familiar voice. 

Alois Trancy is wearing a fitted pink t-shirt reading "Daddy's little darling" in sparkly letters, a pair of black denim shorts that look like they probably break several public decency laws, and knee-high converse sneakers with two-inch-thick soles. 

He looks absolutely appalling. 

In other words, he looks exactly like Alois Trancy has always looked, just updated for the modern world.

" _I_ look -" Ciel splutters, outraged. His carefully pressed black ensemble is tasteful and elegant, thank you very much! Just because he refuses to embrace the whims of seasonal trends doesn't mean he doesn't look impeccable.

"Oooh, look at those!" Alois comments, picking up the same style of leggings that Odette chose earlier. "Pastel goth is the best thing that's happened this century, isn't it?"

"Weren't you dead?"

Alois reaches into the pocket of his shorts -- how do they even  _have_  a pocket when they're that tight? -- and produces a slim telephone, punching a message into the screen with quick-moving thumbs. "Yeah," he answers Ciel at the same time. "But the four of us went back to having individual bodies after a while. Hannah wanted to go to Weimar Berlin, Claude said it was no place for Luka, you know how it goes." 

Ciel snorts. "He never struck me as the concerned parent." 

Alois shrugs one shoulder, still typing. "Souls bleed into one another when they share a body. I care about Luka, so Claude does. I  _know_  you know how that goes."

That much, Ciel has to concede. He and Alois shared a consciousness for only a short time, but the distinct flavour of it has never left Ciel's memory, even with decade upon decade of more recent experiences to pile atop it. 

"Thank all the souls in hell I didn't wind up with your fashion sense," Alois adds, returning the phone to his pocket. 

Ciel doesn't have a chance to be annoyed by the remark before Odette steps up beside them, the gauche leggings in her hand. "I want these," she tells Ciel. "I didn't know you had any friends." 

"He is  _not_  my friend -" Ciel starts, but Alois is already holding out a hand for Odette to shake. 

As Ciel goes to the other side of the store to purchase Odette's chosen garments, he can hear the two of them talking together. 

"Charmed to meet you. Alois Trancy at your service."

"Odette Desmergers."

"You look like another little girl that Ciel knew a long time ago. Has he ever told you about Lizzie?"

"No, I don't think so." 

Items paid for, Ciel goes back over to them again. "Why are you still here?" he asks Alois. Alois just gives that same obnoxious shit-eating grin that he's always had, as his phone lets off a shrill beep. Whatever the message is, it makes him snicker to himself before he types a reply. 

"Care to share the joke?" Ciel asks icily. Odette, distracted by a game on her own phone, pays them little mind. 

"I told Sebastian what you were wearing. He hates me, you know. It's great fun. He keeps changing his phone number every time I find it out. I don't think he appreciates my snapchat prowess, either." 

Ciel pinches the bridge of his nose. He doesn't know why he's even surprised. When has the headache he gets from Alois Trancy ever been a half-measured thing? Of course the horrible brat keeps contact with Sebastian.

"What did happen to Elizabeth, anyway?" Alois prompts.

"What makes you assume I'd know?"

Alois kicks Ciel in the shin. 

Ciel kicks back.

Alois kicks him again.

"She had five children," Ciel answers grudgingly, rubbing an injured ankle. "Her husband was competent enough, though he never appreciated her like she deserved. She died at thirty-seven, giving birth to the last two of her babies. The more robust of the twins lived through infancy. Grew up to look very like her mother." 

"Came into a mysterious fortune, I assume?" Alois's voice is arch. Ciel glares. 

"There's no harm in making sure her descendants are safe from harm."

"I've heard of guardian angels, but never guardian demons." Alois gives one of his clear, bright laughs. "I thought you didn't care for philanthropy, Ciel?"

"Shut your mouth, Trancy."

"Why don't you shut it for me?" Alois leers. 

Odette's phone sits forgotten in her hands, her gaze fixed on the two of them. "I didn't know you had a  _boyfriend_ ," she says to Ciel. "That's so  _gross_! Who would want to kiss  _you_? Erk."

Ciel can feel his cheeks turning red and heated with embarrassment. He's been a demon for over a century, made dozens of contracts for souls, and yet all it takes is ten minutes of Alois Trancy's degenerate presence to turn Ciel into the irritable, easily-flustered boy he'd been so long ago. 

"You have your leggings. We're going home," he snaps to Odette, before turning to Alois. " _You_  are not coming."

"Excuse me,  _I_  am the boss here," Odette says. "You have to do what I say."

"No, I have to do what your brother said. You don't have a contract with me," Ciel corrects her, and presses his entire palm over Alois Trancy's stupid mouth before Alois can say a word. "And  _NO_ , nobody is making any contracts with  _anyone_  about  _anything_. If the pair of you insist on ruining my whole day, at least do it without any binding hell pacts, please."

Alois prises Ciel's hand away from his mouth, holding his wrist. "Look how much you've grown as a person! You now know the word please! That's adorable!" 

"Oh my god," Ciel mutters in disgust, stalking away ahead of them and out of the store. 

"I don't think demons are allowed to say that!" Alois calls after him helpfully.

\--

Ciel spends the afternoon doing a little work on his stock portfolio, but the share market has been tedious for the last few years and his heart isn't in it. He can hear Odette and Alois laughing in the living room, playing some horrible computer game together and shrieking in terror and joy when it frightens them. 

Odette has skinless chicken breast for dinner, and white hot chocolate with marshmallows for dessert, before falling asleep on the couch halfway through  _Wreck It Ralph_. Ciel returns the disc to its case and puts it back on the shelf.

" _Monsters Inc, Wreck It Ralph, Lilo and Stitch_ ," Alois reads out, looking at the row of films. "She likes stories where little girls are saved by evil monsters, doesn't she?"

"It's to be expected," Ciel acknowledges, covering the girl with a blanket against the chill. The two of them move from the living room to Ciel's study, where they have less chance of disturbing her rest. "Since it wasn't Odette who made the contract, she has no reason to feel any ambivalence about her relationship with me." 

"Do you still feel that way about Sebastian? Ambivalent?" Alois asks, sitting on Ciel's desk and swinging his legs back and forth in the air. "I mean, if there was ever a relationship that deserved the 'it's complicated' status on Facebook, it's you two, but --"

"Get off the desk," Ciel says without any genuine venom in his voice, smacking Alois's closest knee on the next upswing. 

Alois stands up with a little jump, wandering over to Ceil's bookcase. "Is what she said true? You don't have any friends?"

"I'm fine," Ciel answers. He's always fine. There's only been one time in all his life when he wasn't, and that was the absolute despair and desolation of being alone and small and ruined inside a cage. But a dark clawed hand reached out and grasped his own, and he's been fine ever since.

He's always fine. Loneliness is for children. 

"You're very good with her. Odette. I could hear the two of you laughing," he comments. Alois grins.

"She's a sweetheart. I guess once an older brother, always an older brother." 

"Mm." Ciel replies absently.

Alois pulls a book down off the shelf, one of the hefty photography tomes that Ciel has a habit of collecting, and starts flipping through the pages. 

"How long since your last contract?" he asks. "Are you hungry?"

Ciel's quiet for a beat before he replies, trying to decide how much of the truth to tell. 

"Two years since Odette's brother."

"And since then?"

Damn him. Damn Alois Trancy and his vulgar inability to recognise a dignified request for discretion.

Ciel lets out a long, annoyed sigh. "Addicts. I make ugly little deals with dying junkies for one last hit and then when it's done I end up vomiting black sludge into the gutter and crying like a little child with a fever. I hate it, but if I took the time to cultivate anything more substantial it would mean taking time away from Odette, and I can't bear the thought of that. I care about her too much. I haven't cared about a human like this since I was one myself. Happy now?" 

Alois puts the book back on the shelf, putting down another heavy coffee-table one and opening it as if it weighs nothing. "I find creeps on the internet," he replies lightly, not looking at Ciel. There's a sharp barb in his words that no amount of forced cheerfulness can disguise. "With my webcam, you know? Ones who say they'd give anything to touch me. I meet up with them and I ask them,  _really, anything? Do you mean that?_  and when they say yes, the contract's made. I gouge their eyes out before I eat their souls. The gore makes me laugh. Blood is such a  _cheerful_  red, you know? I feel like it shouldn't be, but it is." 

It's all so macabre and terrible that Ciel can't help but give a brittle laugh. "What a pair we are. Hating humanity and loving humanity, all at once."

Alois's grin is crooked, and a rueful expression in his eyes betrays how old and strange he really is. "Yeah." 

They really are a pair, Ciel thinks to himself. Becoming demons didn't make them who they are. They were old and strange inside even before that. 

"If you wanted to stay for a while..." he hears himself saying, voice haughty and cold as a brace against rejection. "I'm sure Odette would like it."

The offer is drowned out by a sudden laugh from Alois, however, who is pointing at one of the pages in the hefty photography book in his hands. He beckons Ciel to come over and look as well.

The book is a catalog from a _Japonism_ collection at a museum that Ciel attended some years ago, artifacts from Victorian England's aesthetic obsession with Japan. The particular item that Alois is pointing to is a well-preserved kimono of crimson silk, embroidered with a delicate pattern of butterflies and cobwebs.

"This was mine!" Alois says in delight and surprise. "This very one!"

"Really?" Ciel asks, doubtful. "Are you certain?"

"Look, there's a spot on the hem there where the line is crooked. That's where it had to be mended, after I stepped on the fabric. It was too large for me. How amazing!" 

Ciel thinks about what he knows of Alois Trancy's life, the desperate and sordid things he'd done to stay alive and the sad, lonely little death that had found him anyway. Nobody who looks at the kimono in this glossy book of photographs will ever know that it was once a prop in a tragedy. 

Ciel takes a deep breath. 

"There was a moment, last year," he tells Alois. "On Odette's birthday. I was helping her find art supplies for some project she was determined to undertake. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the activity, but I remember realising quiet suddenly that I was happy. It sounds so silly to say it so baldly, but it's really the only way I know how to put it. I was happy."

He clears his throat, afraid Alois will interject with some crass aside, but the other boy remains quiet. Ciel begins speaking again. "Seeing to it that her growing-up is safe and loved in ways that my own wasn't has been a source of contentment for me. The past doesn't seem to loom so large. The darkness isn't so dark." 

Now, finally, Alois recovers himself a little and offers a smirk. "We're demons. We have nothing to fear from the dark."

"Is that all you demand from existence, then? Absence of fear?"

Alois turns away, closing the book sharply and shoving it back onto the shelf. "Trash doesn't get redemption, Ciel. You can't save me with the power of love. I don't get to go to heaven either way, so don't bother."

"I never said you needed saving!" Ciel snaps angrily at full volume, before remembering to keep his voice down. His hands ball into fists at his sides. "That isn't what I mean at all. You are a rude, nasty, mean little idiot, and I can't stand you -"

"Wow, slow down with the compliments, you'll give be a big ego -"

"Shut up! Shut up! You are one of the worst people I've ever had the displeasure of being acquainted with, and  _it still wasn't your fault_. I... an angel, an actual angel out of some ridiculous church fresco, all done up in silver and white, once tried to make me feel that my soul was tarnished because of what had been done to me." 

Ciel's voice is rising in volume again. He tries to moderate it, but feels as if he's on the verge or crying or an asthma attack or some other stupidly human reaction. Kissing Alois on his stupid gaping mouth, perhaps. "Well,  _fuck_  that.  _Fuck_  heaven. We don't need heaven. We are not the lesser for what we've gone through. We're still allowed to be happy. We're still allowed to find contentment, and a place that feels like home."

"Ciel?" Odette interrupts, standing in the doorway with the blanket around her shoulders, rubbing sleepily at one eye. "Is the movie over?"

"I'm sorry, Odette. I didn't mean to wake you. I didn't mean to shout."

"'s okay," she says, stifling a yawn. "Jacques used to fight with his boyfriend, too. Can I have another hot chocolate?"

"He's  _not_  my -"

"I heard you say 'fuck'. I heard you say 'fuck'  _twice_. I am going to have  _eight_  marshmallows in my hot chocolate, because you  _always_  give me a nasty look when I say 'fuck', and you say 'fuck'  _twice_."

"All right, that's quite enough," Ciel says, following her back towards the kitchen, ignoring the laughing Alois following behind them. "I said it twice, so you can have two marshmallows."

"You'd better learn to put up with me without swearing every time I piss you off, or she'll wind up in a sugar coma." 

Ciel raises his eyebrows at Alois's comment. Alois shrugs.

"I guess I could stay. For a while. Snapchat some of your outfits to Sebastian."

\--

Despite Ciel's best intentions, Odette's hot chocolate has eight marshmallows in it before the end of the week. 


End file.
